I am grateful to Mr Ian Cummings (Viewpoints, September 28) for reminding readers of the shameful Nazi-Soviet Pact of August 23, 1939.

Not only did it allow the Soviet Union to invade Finland and half of Poland, as outlined by Mr Cummings, but it also gave Stalin the green light to annex the three independent Baltic States – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – in 1940.

Following unspeakable suffering, including mass murder and deportations under both Soviet and Nazi occupations, the three proud Baltic nations only recovered their freedom in 1991 – 52 years after the Nazi-Soviet pact – when the Soviet Union itself collapsed.

We in Britain and Western Europe celebrated victory over Nazi tyranny in 1945.

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and the rest of Eastern Europe had to wait a further half a century before they could celebrate liberation from Soviet tyranny.

RICHARD SAMUELSON

South Street